$100 in 1943 is worth $155 in 1954,
because prices increased 55.5% over that period, an average of
4.09% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$155
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.5%
Average inflation rate
4.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$155
Price difference ($100 base)
$55.49
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1943 → 1954
$155
$100 in 1954 → 1943
$64.31
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1954
Between 1943 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.5%, which works out to an average of
4.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1954: the 1943 dollar
lost 35.7% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1943 amount converts to 1954 at the same ratio, 1.55: $1,000 becomes
$1,555, and $10,000 becomes $15,549.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.55
$5.00
$7.77
$10.00
$15.55
$20.00
$31.10
$50.00
$77.75
$100
$155
$500
$777
$1,000
$1,555
$5,000
$7,775
$10,000
$15,549
$100,000
$155,491
$1,000,000
$1,554,913
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1954
Between 1943 and 1954, food rose the most, up 64.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 55.0%, against 55.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.09%
$155
Food
4.65%
$165
Transportation
4.61%
$164
Medical care
4.30%
$159
Apparel
4.07%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1943: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1943 to 1954
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 4.85% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.79% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1954 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1943, at end
1943–1950
4.85%
39.3%
$139
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $139 by
1948, on its way to $155 in 1954; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $155; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1954: $100 is worth $155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1954/